Perspective
by Chidorigan
Summary: Neji and TenTen view the world in very different ways, so it only comes natural that they would come to very different conclusions about each other.  NejiTen
1. Chapter 1

TenTen wasn't bad looking.

It wasn't that Neji had ever thought that she was ugly or anything. He'd just never looked at her as anything other than his teammate. That was inappropriate and he never intended to look at any teammate of his in any sort of romantic way. That wasn't even a question with the green morons, and up until this moment had been fairly simple with TenTen. Neji was the epitome of self restraint after all and he'd never had any problem viewing her as just another one of the guys.

After they'd been on the same team for so long, he never even had to think about it. Whether they were all sweaty from training or sharing a tent during a mission so that neither of them would have to share with Gai or Lee, she was just a friend to him. His best friend actually. He didn't know when that happened. They'd only started training together because the other two members of their team were so completely insane. But somehow over the years she'd found an irreplaceable spot in his life.

And his feelings regarding her might have stayed that way forever, if something hadn't happened to change them. It had been an accident really. They were training like they did every day and he'd sent one of her many sharp weapons flying back towards her with his kaiten. He didn't notice anything strange at first. It was difficult to see from within that spinning half sphere of chakra, but once he stopped rotating his Byakugan activated eyes caught a glimpse of a sight that made him take a second look.

It was apparent that TenTen hadn't seen what he did or she wouldn't have continued training. No way. She definitely didn't see the large rip in her shirt, clearly created by one of her overly sharp weapons that took a bad bounce off his kaiten. If she had she would have stopped training immediately. She probably thought she avoided whatever weapon it was completely. But no, there was a large hole in her shirt now. It wouldn't have been so bad if the rip hadn't been right across her chest, leaving her bra almost fully visible.

And that brought him back to his original conclusion, TenTen was not bad looking. It wasn't obvious since she didn't put that much effort into her appearance since she was almost always training and getting all dirty and disgusting. But he could see that underneath the dirt that covered most of her as a result of their strenuous training there was a pretty girl. He didn't want to see that. She was his teammate, he reminded himself. He couldn't think of a teammate that way.

Neji reached out and caught the kodachi that she had thrown at him, deactivating his Byakugan as he purposely looked at her face rather than elsewhere.

"Training's over."

His blunt statement was met with a look of confusion from the brown eyed girl.

"But-"she started to protest but stopped, her eyes following his as his as they trailed down from her face to her shirt in the type of nonverbal communication that both had grown accustomed to.

And then Neji heard the loudest shriek he'd ever detected from his long time sparring partner, even louder than the time she'd learned just what Lee wears under the spandex jumpsuit of his in order to avoid underwear lines. It was kind of amusing really, watching TenTen turn bright red and cover her chest with her arms.

"Don't get upset. No one else saw," he said with his usual cool attitude.

He had meant that to be reassuring, but that simple statement seemed to have the opposite effect on his teammate. He peered curiously at her as she sent him a death glare very unlike herself then bolted from the training field without even bothering to attempt to clean up all of her weapons, which were still scattered all around the area.

She may have been his best friend but he would never understand her completely. It was fascinating and annoying at the same time. Neji had no idea what had caused her to glare at him in a such a way. Sure, he was a total and complete ass a good percentage of the time, but this time he'd been trying to do his teammate a favor. He'd thought she would want to know what had happened. Clearly he'd done something wrong.

Oh well. He wasn't going to worry about it too much. If she wanted to tell him why she was mad at him then she would. If not then he would forget it. Until then he would go home, maybe get some training in with Hinata. But first he had to clean up the mess TenTen had left in her wake. All those mostly metal weapons would rust if left outside, so Neji gathered them up before heading home with them.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Neji was asexual.

He had to be. There was no other explanation for it. In all the time TenTen had known him, she'd never seen him look at a girl with the same look that other guys possessed. Sure, he'd looked at her with some semblance of respect on a few occasions and he'd grown protective of his cousin over the years, but he still seemed unbelievably disgusted by any girl who'd shown romantic interest in him.

And she would be one to know. She was his best friend and they spent more time together than with anyone else, even if quite a bit of that was training. And even though Neji wasn't as obvious about how he felt as certain other members of their team she knew how to read him better than anyone else. She could tell when he was sulking about his family, when he was mocking someone he considered beneath him, and when he was so frustrated that he just needed to train until he exhausted himself.

But even with all the things she knew about Neji, there were still times that he surprised her. Like today, when he effortlessly caught a kodachi with a strange look on his face. He was staring at her face, but she couldn't tell what was going through his mind.

"Training's over."

That simple statement confused her to no end. They hadn't been training for very long and Neji never cut training short, not even when it was pouring down rain. So why would he want to end training now?

"But-" was the only word she managed to get out of her mouth.

There was definitely something wrong. The way he was looking at her was weird. She'd never seen him get that look on his face before. She didn't even know what to call it. He wasn't annoyed, nor was he mocking the futility of their match. And then she noticed his gaze change. He started to look down. She followed his eyes until she found what had his attention. Her shirt was torn, and not just a normal tear. It was torn right across her chest.

And then she screamed, loudly. Neji had just seen her bra. Her bra! And it wasn't even a cute one. It was a plain white bra that she only wore when she trained. This was by far the most humiliating moment of her life. It didn't seem to help that Neji seemed to find her predicament to be hilarious. As she desperately tried to cover herself she could tell that he wanted to laugh at her. She knew he never would. He was far too refined, but there was a distinct upturn of his lips that made it clear to her that he was amused.

"Don't get upset. No one else saw," were the only words that came from his mouth.

And it made her want to smack him. She nearly flashed her male teammate and he was telling her not to be upset. It was ridiculous. And that jerk just steard at her, as if he wasn't the biggest ass in the entire world. She wanted to tell him to go to hell, among other things, but right now she was completely focused on not showing any more than she already had. So instead she glared at him, and evil death glare that was her best impression of what he looked like when he was mad at Lee.

Then she ran. She got away from there as fast as she possibly could. She just kept running until she was out of range of his byakugan, and then stopped and looked back. He wasn't following her. But why would he? He didn't seem to care that he'd just caught a full view of her bra. The only emotion that she'd seen on his face was amusement. Well that and that one she hadn't been able to identify right before he stopped their training. He was probably just trying to figure out how to tell her that she had a huge hole in her shirt right in front of her bra.

And that was why TenTen came to the conclusion that Neji was asexual. He had seen almost her entire bra, albeit on accident, but he still had no signs of being a typical teenage boy. Even Lee, who she was sure thought of her like a sister, would have blushed at the sight. But Neji was ice cold. Damn bastard.

TenTen hurried home, jumping across rooftops as fast as she could in order to avoid anyone seeing her holding her torn shirt across her chest. She was lucky. No one noticed. She was able to get home without any more embarrassing moments. But it wasn't until she arrived at her apartment that she realized she forgot her weapons at the training field.

She changed into a shirt that wasn't torn open then quickly headed back to the training field, finding both them and her teammate gone upon her arrival. He must have taken them with him. It was the only logical conclusion. Oh great. But there was no way she was going to go get them from him now. He was probably incredibly annoyed with her for screaming then running off like that. And she wasn't too happy with him either. No, she'd wait until she wasn't feeling quite so humiliated. Maybe tomorrow… or maybe a week. Instead she went home, determined to forget this day with a whole lot of chocolate ice cream. That always made her feel better.


	2. Chapter 2

TenTen managed to avoid Neji for three whole days. That was actually a long time for the two of them. They usually trained together almost every day. But she'd made the excuse that Lee has asked her to help with his training to avoid training with Neji. And of course she felt incredibly guilty about that, but she just couldn't face Neji right now. Just thinking about what had happened made her want to cry, and if she cried in front of Neji he'd only get annoyed. The jerk thought of tears as a weakness.

Right now TenTen was at Lee's apartment, laying across the green beast's bed on her stomach and reading a magazine. It was a good thing that Lee was as good a listener as a girl, because TenTen didn't have any close friends that were girls. Sure, there was Hinata, but she couldn't talk to her about Neji. They were family.

When she'd told Lee about what had happened, he'd stopped her the moment she used the word 'bra.' He did not want to hear any more, fearing for his youthful friend's modesty. Why couldn't Neji be so considerate? Or at least think about her feelings. The jerk.

"You cannot avoid our youthful teammate forever. He's going to get upset with you and Gai-sensei would not be happy if you upset our team dynamic," Lee piped up from where he was sitting next to her, legs folded and cleaning his weights.

TenTen sighed, shaking her head.

"I know. I guess I'm just hoping that maybe if I wait long enough he'll forget about the whole thing."

Lee laughed, setting his weights down and looking down at her.

"Neji does not forget a thing. That is part of what makes him so youthful!"

"Do you have to work that word into every sentence?" TenTen asked.

"What word?"

"Youth."

Lee looked at her curiously, as if he hadn't realized that he actually said it that much.

"I didn't say youth. I said youthful. Those are two completely different words," he finally exclaimed.

TenTen rolled her eyes. He was impossible. There was no worth in arguing him. He was kinda like Neji in that way.

"Right. Whatever."

TenTen sighed once more shutting her magazine and laying her head down on Lee's bed. It was silent for a moment and TenTen was actually enjoying the silence, which was so rare when she was around Lee. But then there was a knock at Lee's front door. Both ninjas perked up. They weren't expecting anyone to show.

Lee climbed off the bed and went to the front door, answering it. TenTen could hear the voices from the bedroom.

"Neji! What a pleasure it is to see my most youthful teammate!"

Even though she couldn't see Neji, TenTen could practically feel his annoyance. She knew him that well.

"I need to talk to TenTen," Neji said, sounding as irritated as she expected him to be.

There was a small silence then Neji spoke again.

"I know she's here. Don't bother trying to lie."

Damn Neji and his stupid byakugan. It gave him an unfair advantage. TenTen frowned, but managed to slide off the bed and walked to the front door, seeing Lee facing Neji and looking very uncomfortable being in the middle of the situation. The taijutsu user mumbled some very youthful excuse and got out of there as fast as he could, leaving TenTen alone with Neji, who was holding her weapon scroll in his hands.

"Hi Neji. What's up?" TenTen said cheerfully, trying not to look like he was the last person in the entire world that she wanted to see right now.

"Here," Neji said, shoving the scroll into her arms.

He looked mad, and not just his usual mad. He was clearly upset, probably because he realized she was avoiding him. She never was good at hiding things from him.

"It's got to be hard to train with Lee without your weapons."

The brown haired girl laughed sheepishly, not really knowing what to see.

"Gee… Thanks Neji. Do you wanna hang out with me and Lee for a while?"

"No," was his only curt reply.

It made TenTen cringe, hearing him speak like that to her. He was usually slightly less cold with her than everyone else. But not today. Today he was extra cold. Before she could even say anything he turned and left, practically disappearing from her sight. She really hated being the slowest member of their team. She knew there would be no way to catch him if he didn't want to be caught.

But she didn't know if she wanted to chase after him anyways. She was upset with him until he actually showed up in front of her, but once she saw him that all changed. It actually seemed like he was almost hurt by her actions, which was weird because nothing got to Neji. People could insult him all day and he wouldn't be fazed. But she'd hurt him? It didn't make sense. Maybe she was reading him wrong. It had happened before, just not often.

"Oi Lee. I'm gonna go. See you later!" she called, not even waiting for a reply back from her teammate before she left Lee's apartment.

TenTen didn't really know where to go, so she just ended up wandering around the village. She walked around for a while before finding herself walking on the path to her team's training area. She hadn't meant to go there. It was just sort of where she wound up. There shouldn't be anyone there yet since they weren't supposed to train today and Neji trained alone he did so at home. She would at least be able to get some thinking done there. She'd always found the place to be soothing. Lots of good memories.

Sitting on the ground and leaning her back against a tree, the girl was finally able to just think about what had happened. She'd gotten angry at Neji for being completely cold about accidentally seeing her bra. It was if he didn't realize that she was a girl at all. Sure, she didn't want him to treat her any differently as a ninja just because she had boobs, but she also didn't want his reaction to her practically flashing him to be amusement. It was bad enough that guys usually saw her as some kind of sexless tomboy, but this was taking it to a whole new level. No guy would ever see her as anything but a friend. She should accept it now. She was going to be a very accomplished ninja, and be alone forever because of it.

"Stupid stupid stupid…Should have known better," she mumbled to herself and she rubbed her eyes, trying to stop herself from crying. But it was for nothing. She just couldn't stop the tears from coming. It made her weak and she knew it, but she just couldn't stop.

"What are you talking about?" came the voice of the teammate she was currently obsessing over.

TenTen practically jumped out of her skin when she heard him speak, which of course prompted him to lecture her.

"You should have notice me approach. I wasn't trying to hide my presence," he said, staring down at her with that blank look on his face.

"Not now Neji. Just go away," she said, resting her forehead on her knees and trying to hide the fact that she was crying from him.

She didn't hear his footsteps at all. He wasn't leaving. He wasn't saying anything either. She wished she could see the look on his face so that she could know what was going on inside that head of his, but that would require looking at him and therefore letting him see her cry. That was not happening.

"I already know you're crying. No use hiding," he said, still with no trace of emotion in his voice.

As well as she knew him, he knew her just as well. She should have known that he didn't have to see her face to know she was crying. But she still wasn't going to look at him. It was just too shameful. In fact, she didn't bother answering him at all. She kept her head buried in her knees and just ignored him. That is, until he spoke.

"Get up," he said, using the same commanding tone he had whenever they were training and she was getting tired and wanted to quite.

"What?" was her muffled response, quiet and barely audible because of her face being against her pants.

"Get up. I'm not coming down there, so you can to stand."

It figured. Neji was always so rigid. He didn't bend for anyone, which was actually literal this time. He wouldn't bend down for her.

"Why?" she muttered.

"I want to talk to you."

"Not now."

She could practically feel the pale white eyes boring a whole into her brain with his glare. TenTen sighed and stood up, but was not happy about it. Her eyes were still wet from having been crying and her face was all red, not to mention the very unpleasant expression on her face.

"There, I'm standing. Now what do you want," she growled.

Neji actually didn't respond for a moment, caught off guard by her irritableness.

"You're avoiding me. I want to know why," he demanded.

Now it was TenTen's turn to glare.

"Because all any man will ever think of me as is a friend. I am a girl! I like boys. I just want you to act like seeing my bra isn't hilarious. Even Lee was embarrassed to talk about it! Seriously, do you even like girls or is it just me that you could never see that way?"

She had gone off the deep end now and she knew it, yelling at him like that. He looked so confused at that moment. There was a very awkward pause after that. Finally the silence was broken by the brown eyed girl.

"Guh… Sorry. It's not your fault I'm not pretty enough for any guy to notice."

She was about to say more but was cut off by him opening his mouth.

"I like girls."

So he wasn't asexual. That was good to know, but so not the point right now.

"That's great Neji, but I think I'm gonna go home now. I've had enough embarrassment for one day."

And with that she turned and tried to walk away, but was stopped by a hand grasping her wrist. She turned back and looked at Neji, who seemed to be contemplating something. Then without any warning, he used the grip he had on her wrist to pull her back to him. She nearly tripped over her own two feet, startled by the motion, but caught herself mere inches away from Neji. That left her staring at his chest and very confused at what he was doing. She looked up at him and saw that the look on contemplation that had been on his face before was now replaced with a look of interest. What was so interesting?

And then the small distance that was left between them was nonexistent and she felt his free hand on the small of her back pulling her up against him. It happened so fast that she didn't even have time to react. His lips pressed against hers and her eyes widened with shock. He let go of her wrist but she didn't try to pull away. Instead she rested her hand on his shoulder, closed her eyes and actually leaned into the kiss.

And then just as quickly as it had all happened, it was over. Neji's hand left her waist and he pulled away from the kiss. TenTen was just left there, stunned and unable to speak. The strange thing was, Neji didn't speak either. He just turned and walked away, disappearing into the trees.

"What the hell was that?" the brunette mumbled to herself, reaching up and touching her lips gently with her fingers as if trying to figure if what she just experienced actually happened.

Surely it didn't. Neji didn't kiss people, especially not her. She was his best friend, had been for years. And now… now what? She didn't know. The only thing TenTen could do was try to figure out what had happened as she walked home.


End file.
